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One of my favorite stories about the power of praise is found in this chapter. Things can't get much worse than to be beaten with rods, thrown in jail with your hands and feet in stocks. I can't imagine how uncomfortable Paul and Silas had to have been. Yet, they could praise the Lord. Singing hymns at midnight.
Praising the Lord in the tough times, it's really hard, but I've never been beaten, jailed and bound in stocks so the garbage of my days really aren't that big a deal...
Below is one of my favorite Petra songs to remind me to praise the Lord.
There's so much in this chapter to intrigue me! First the girl with the spirit of divination--always makes me wonder exactly HOW she was exclaiming that they were messengers of God. Was she mocking? Or just annoyingly THERE? I find it interesting because she was speaking truth but got rebuked--which makes me think something about that spirit within her was clashing with the Spirit in Paul and Timothy.
ReplyDeleteI've also always been intrigued by the guard whose whole house believed with him. We were discussing this "whole house" thing in church a while back, and how it doesn't make sense since salvation is individual--which was when it struck me that if this was a family with the balance God ordained, it in fact DID make sense, because the others in the family would have trusted the wisdom of the husband/father/master and therefore received the Truth with an open, willing heart as well. I wouldn't believe just anything anyone said--but if my husband came to me and said, "God opened my eyes to this," I would believe with him, because I trust him as the head of our family. It's really quite beautiful!
And I'm really quite rambling! ;-) Hope everyone has a great day. =)
I got confused by the way the writer went from "he and they" in the rest of the chapter to "we" in vs 10-16.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned that to my hubby, Sharon, LOL.
DeleteActs 16
ReplyDeletePaul and Silas' credibility of the Good News was upheld by being personally escorted out of the city by those who had imprisoned them.
21 "...they’re advocating customs that we can’t accept or practice as Roman citizens.”
38 "The guards reported to the officials what Paul had said. When the Roman officials heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid."
The Lord makes all the difference and changes us from our customs and traditions of men!